Top bass pros use Rapala baits to bag big fish and big prizes

Rapala baits have helped top bass pros bag big fish and big prizes in Texas and Missouri in the last week.

Patrick Walters (main picture) threw a Shadow Rap Deep jerkbait on his way to earning $100,000 for winning the Bassmaster Elite Series Texas Fest tournament on Lake Fork, while Brandon Palaniuk used DT-16 crankbaits to win $22,000 for his fourth place finish in the same tournament.

As reported earlier this week, Seth Felder won a brand new Toyota Tundra pick-up for catching a 9lb 9oz bass – the biggest fish caught during the entire event – on an OG Slim crankbait. Last, but not least, in Missouri, Cody Hull (pictured left) dropped a Jigging Rap on Table Rock Lake to win $32,000 and an FLW Toyota Series trophy.

Walters won the Texas Fest in impressive fashion, catching 20 bass in four days that weighed a combined 104lb 12oz. That total amounted to 29lb 10oz more than the second-placed angler – a Bassmaster Elite Series record margin of victory.

“What a week; it doesn’t seem real,” Walters said. “Everyone wants to catch 100lb and it feels good to do it.” He caught most of his big bass by pulling jerkbaits over fish suspending among the branches of submerged trees. Key among a trio of jerkbaits he rotated to get bites was a Rapala Shadow Rap Deep. Walters also used 12lb and 14lb Sufix Advanced Fluorocarbon.